The Peruvian court decided, on Friday (5), two days before the second round of the presidential elections, to send the leftist candidate for President of Peru, Roberto Sánchez, to trial for allegedly falsely declaring his party’s financing around six years ago.
The candidate will face right-wing Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former autocrat president Alberto Fujimori, on Sunday in a second round that is expected to be fierce. Its implementation will not be impacted by the court order, as it can be appealed.
Furthermore, if he wins the elections, Sánchez, a 57-year-old congressman and former minister, would have immunity, as provided for by the Constitution.
“The criminal prosecution notice is ordered, consequently it is declared that there is merit for the oral trial against Roberto Sánchez Palomino”, read judge Adolfo Farfán, after a two-day virtual hearing.
The Peruvian Public Ministry, which asked for a sentence of five years and four months in prison, declared “in agreement with” the resolution.
Sánchez’s defense has already informed that it will appeal, which has a deadline of one week.
According to the Public Ministry, there are inconsistencies in the financial reports of Sánchez’s party, Together for Peru, in the campaigns for the regional and municipal elections in which he participated between 2018 and 2020.
According to the indictment, Sánchez would have received more than 57,000 dollars (R$292 thousand, at current exchange rates) in contributions from members of his political group for party activities that were not declared at the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE, in its Spanish acronym).
“This court decided to proceed, declare the observations of the technical defenses unfounded and declare the formal validity of the following accusation”, added the judge.
A lie
So far, Sánchez has not commented on the court decision.
On Thursday, he watched the hearing virtually, just before his campaign closing rally in Lima.
“For years they tried to install a lie to discredit me politically,” Sánchez wrote in April about the process at X.
The politician claims that the case against him had been closed in 2025 by a court, due to a lack of evidence from the prosecution regarding the alleged crime of fraud.
In these elections, marked by political instability and a rise in crime, the leftist candidate presents himself as the voice of the country’s poor and rural areas.
He also accuses Fujimori of being part of a political “mafia” to which he attributes the instability in Peru, which since 2016 has had eight presidents.
Four presidents were removed from office by Congress, where Fujimori’s party, Força Popular, has enormous influence.
Two others resigned before being removed, one ended his brief eight-month term and the current interim will hand over power in July.
“Respectful” relations with the USA
In the final stretch of the campaign, Sánchez has repeatedly spoken about consensus and stability, distancing himself from calls for radical change that scared some conservative voters.
On Friday, the candidate told AFP that he even wants to have “respectful” relations with American President Donald Trump.
“Good neighborliness, respectful relations between nations (….) I believe that is always a priority. And Peru, which has historical relations with the United States, cannot be the exception. This will be our government vocation”, he stated.
During his second term, Trump has expressed his opinion on several elections in Latin America in support of conservative candidates, but so far he has not done so on Peru.
Regarding political instability, Sánchez defended reaching a political consensus to stop the indiscriminate use that Congress makes of its power to remove a president, alleging “permanent moral incapacity”, as an article of the Constitution vaguely highlights.
“We have to recover the balance of powers, the separation of powers, regulate vacancies due to permanent moral incapacity in the president’s position”, he defended.
The leftist leader highlighted that this is a task that will allow “to stop this misgovernment that began in 2016”.
